Sweet Paul + School Lunch Update

image via sweet paul magazine

Have you seen the new magazine from genius food blogger/ stylist sweet paul? It's completely inspiring and lovely and the recipes are seriously drool-worthy.

In (digitally) flipping through it, I was especially jazzed about the photo above, as it solved a vexing "snack" dilemma I've been wrestling with.

Tomorrow night, a group of other neighborhood moms are meeting at my house to talk "school lunch" and come up with some changes we'd like to see implemented at our elementary school. (I haven't talked about school lunch here in a while, but I'm pretty excited about the direction we're headed.)

Needless to say, I was a wee bit stressed about what kind of snack to serve a group of ladies while talking about putting healthier food in our kid's lunch rooms, so when I saw the picture above I had a sort of eureka moment... So easy, so pretty -- some pecans, some pears, a little cheese, some dried apricots, a few water crackers... Done and done.

I'm totally copying Paul. 100% copying... that exact snack box you see above. (except maybe on a tray and not a box, we'll see.)

Ok, back to school lunch. Several of these same ladies and I got together a few months ago to watch the excellent documentary 2 Angry Moms. (If you're at all interested in the school lunch issue, I would highly recommend buying this and hosting a screening for other moms, it's fantastic!) Since then, there have been several other group meet-ups, a meeting between one of the especially motivated moms and our district food service director (!), and I had a chance to chat with the head of the lunch program at Audrey's school. There's real traction and a strong sense in our community that folks are interested in making sure our schools serve healthy food, which is so incredibly encouraging, no?

The really exciting news though is that I think the stars are aligning and change is already happening...what seemed like an uphill battle just months ago now seems to be moving rapidly forward (maybe it's the changes to the Child Nutrition Act or the Jamie Oliver show and petition {have you signed the petition yet?} or public pressure...who knows, but something is going on.) For example, I got a sneak peek at the menu for next year and all white grains have been replaced with whole wheat, they're offering loads more fresh fruits and veggies (I was especially excited about the addition of snap peas), and they've eliminated pudding and processed branded meals (i.e. that Smucker's crustable pb&j currently on the menu.)

Progress friends, progress...

I'll keep you posted on how things shake out (both the meeting and that cheese box ;-)

The Candy Conundrum...

this vosges barcelona bunny (hickory smoked almonds + grey sea salt + deep milk chocolate) is my Easter candy of choice...

I've been feverishly working on pulling together the girlie's Easter Baskets (somehow Easter snuck up on me this year, it's early!), and I'm facing a candy dilemma.

We are candy fans. HUGE. So much so, that I have to severely limit what we buy so that the temptation just isn't there. If there's candy in the house, Bryan and the girlies (and if it's good chocolate, clump me in there too) can sniff it out...no matter how well it's hidden. That's just how they roll.

I fear if we go cold turkey I'll end up with kids that hide in the closet to eat Snickers bars, so my typical M.O. is to go quality over quantity. I try to make the occasional dessert from scratch or buy good gelato or ice cream to avoid the candy issue altogether. And when the occasion does call for candy (i.e. this Easter basket thing), I'll buy a few really good sweets (no peeps or waxy hollow bunnies in sight) and attempt to deflect attention from the lack of massive quantities of sugar with other goodies like books and bubbles and whatnot.

But deep down (and I know this is crazy given how strongly I feel about eating well and generally avoiding, well...crap) I feel a little bad. Like I'm somehow shortchanging the girlies if their baskets aren't overflowing with Cadbury Cream Eggs and Jelly Beans.

How do you guys handle the Easter basket. Are you all in or do you rein it in??

In Print Part II -- Kid's Cookbooks

images via edible

A while back I collaborated with my friend, photographer Richard Adams, on a piece about kid's cookbooks for the Dallas & Ft. Worth edition of Edible magazine. I am a huge fan of Edible, as it focuses on local, sustainable food and the art direction and photography is beautiful, so I was honored to be asked to contribute...

+ Audrey loved being in the photo shoot ;-)

You can click on the image above if you want to read the piece.

On Broccoli and Books...

In matters of food I often underestimate the girls.

I often immediately assume I'll have to cajole, beg or bribe them to eat something healthy when, more often than not, it's what they really want. A recent example occurred just last night when Bryan and Audrey were outside grilling steaks, and I was in the kitchen tossing some steamed broccoli with a little butter and sea salt. Millie was hungry, or in her words, staaarrrvvving (my kids are nothing if not dramatic, no idea where they get that from), and we were still a good 15 minutes from sitting down at the table.

My first instinct was to offer up a few pretzels, but out of desperation (and proximity) I instead handed her a broccoli spear. She happily popped it into her mouth...and then another, and another, until she had eaten half the bowl.

I need to give those girlies more credit, no?

In other exciting news (yes, I'm the type of person that thinks a kid devouring broccoli is exciting...), my friend Lisa Greene just released her fantastic book, Processed Kids, A Real Mom’s Guide to Raising Natural Kids in a Processed World.

Prompted by her son's food allergies, specifically to High Fructose Corn Syrup, Lisa took a deep dive into food research and the impact of processed foods on health and behavior. She distilled all of her learnings into Processed Kids, which is full of information, guidance and easy recipes.

It is definitely worth a read!

p.s. Lisa is that genius behind the killer goat cheese polenta...I'm just saying.

Detox Recap

photo via nibs

After all my whining over cheese, I thought it only fair to do a little recap of my two week detox to let you know how it actually went down.

My initial goal for going into this craziness was to "recalibrate" my diet a bit -- I've been indulging, well... a lot this summer, in fact so much so that I'd abandoned the concept of "special occasion" eating (dessert and/or wine had become the norm instead of the exception...) I thought going spartan for a couple of weeks would help me cleanse my body a bit and get me back on track before the bacchanal otherwise known as the holidays.

So for 14 days, I didn't consume any alcohol, dairy, sugar, caffeine, red meat, processed foods, flour, gluten and soy... for the most part. I did indulge in a small (4 ounces or so) cup of coffee every morning, as I didn't want to contend with a raging headache, but I was almost "perfect", staying full on brown rice, veggies and fruit, raw nuts, beans, organic chicken and pork, fish and oatmeal. I also consumed quite possibly the grossest drink on earth every morning -- 8 ounces of unsweetened cranberry juice with a big scoop of green "super food". Friends, I can't tell you how awful this was. It took every. single. ounce. of my resolve to get it down without gagging, but I suspect it contributed to the major upside of this experiment -- my super human energy.

Now honestly I'm not sure that some of my newfound energy wasn't psychological, but during the 14 days spent detoxing, I woke up about an hour earlier every morning (without an alarm clock) and didn't fall into my typical mid-afternoon slump. I also generally felt better, and yes (in case you're wondering), I also lost a couple of pounds.

So all in all, it was worth the monotony of of my meals and the absence of cheese. I think I'm going to try and do it a few times a year...maybe ;-)

Eating On The Cheap...

I'm totally addicted to W. Hoddington Carter’s Extreme Frugality series on gourmet.com. I woke up at 5:30 this morning and read every. single. one. I think that detox is giving me super human energy... Seriously.

Carter's focus isn't on organic or local food, rather his goal is to feed his family of six good food, while spending as little money as possible. Their progress has been fascinating (and funny.) It's a must read.

Happy weekend...only three more days before I reunite with cheese!

I Miss Cheese

image by michele m. waite via lovely morning

Only four more days left of this (*&#@*) detox, and I can 100%, unequivocally, without a doubt say:

I. Want. Cheese.

Otherwise, it's going great.